Eight years after its last show, Charlotte’s Scapegoat reunites for Skylark’s anniversary

When the members of Scapegoat left Amos’ Southend in November 2011 following a hometown show for the release of the band’s sixth album, “I Am Alien,” they didn’t realize it would be eight years before they shared the stage again.

Still in their early twenties, they’d been playing together since middle school. At the height of their local popularity, they could fill Tremont Music Hall’s 1,000-capacity big room. Toward the end of its 13-year run, the metalcore outfit could even make the claim that it was “big in Japan,” having toured there.

Still, as he packed up his equipment, guitarist Justin Driscoll had a feeling this was it.

“Nothing was said or ever discussed. It was a weird, ominous feeling. I just knew that was it,” he says. A week of not talking turned into eight years, but that hiatus ended last month when Scapegoat played an impromptu eight-song set at Skylark Social Club — the Central Avenue venue and bar that Driscoll co-owns with Taylor Arthur and Joshua Taddeo.

The club celebrates its second anniversary Friday with Scapegoat headlining its first concert since 2011, with support from Violent Life Violent Death and Cosmic Reaper.

Kit Walters and Driscoll, drummer Dan Hitselberger, and guitarist Spencer Bensch had toyed via group text with the idea of someday getting the band together to play again.

“A month ago, Kit said, ‘I’m coming back to Charlotte for a little bit. Get everything together, organize the troops, make sure they’re in line, and get the songs together, and I’ll come to town and we’ll do that,’” says Driscoll, a graphic designer and photographer who had long played business manager to Walters’ creative guide.

“We started in 1998 and ran through 2011 nonstop,” Driscoll says. “In 2005, we signed on with Tragic Hero out of Raleigh and they got scooped up by Warner Bros., and that’s when we went full force as a band being on the road, living in close quarters. Three of us had dropped out of UNCC. We were going to break up in 2009, but got offered a Japanese tour where we got treated like the Beatles and re-energized.”

After the band finally did split, Walters began producing professionally and moved to New York, where he wrote and produced for major-label artists and worked with World Wrestling Entertainment. (His track “No Mercy” was the featured theme for WWE’s fall pay-per-view event for two years.)

While Walters was working on pop-oriented material under the moniker Kit in the Big Apple, Driscoll — who has 4-year-old twin girls — was trying to create a rock ‘n’ roll venue for local and touring acts to give promising bands the same shot Tremont’s Penny Craver and promoter Traci Nasta gave Scapegoat 20 years ago.

Driscoll, Arthur and Taddeo spent a year looking at 40 venues, but many of the owners they connected with balked at the words “rock n’ roll” and “live music,” Driscoll says. The Central Avenue location became available just as Driscoll was ready to dissolve the LLC. They got the keys in December 2017 and opened less than a month later.

“Everyone there has been in a band, been on tour,” he says. “Unless you’re G N’ R, touring is pretty miserable. We all came up in late ’90s/early 2000s, and Penny gave us all a break. If a bigger band was coming through town, she’d find a way to put our bands on as local support.”

With Skylark, Driscoll hopes to facilitate the next generation of local rock musicians. He also sees it as a throwback to Charlotte’s rock n’ roll roots, and the close-knit atmosphere of venues like Tremont and Fat City.

“The climate of the neighborhood has changed,” he says. “We’re at the edge of the ’hood, and representing what the neighborhood was. For all intents and purposes, we’re a rock n’ roll dive bar. We’re holding on to the ethos of what the neighborhood was and the edginess of it.

“Yes Taddeo, Taylor and I founded it, but it wouldn’t run without John (Stone), sound man Pete (McCoil), and bartenders Regan (Brown) and Marisa (Taylor). It’s a family unit. There isn’t owners and staff. It’s just a family.”

With the reunion afoot, Skylark is giving Scapegoat a chance to regain a positive footing.

“I remember wanting to call in sick to band practice,” he says. “Tuesday, I couldn’t wait to get done with the work I had to do so I could get to band practice.”

Scapegoat

When: 8 p.m. Friday.

Where: Skylark Social Club, 2131 Central Ave.

Tickets: $12.

Details: 980-236-8342; www.eventbrite.com.